Yesterday I shared my personal experience and some thoughts on what happened in Texas last week. You can read that post here. In lieu of my regular scheduled programming (the very unimportant Bachelor recap), I want to share some ways you can help Texans in need.
Ways to help
I’m going to lump this post into ways you can give financially, ways you can volunteer with your time and some miscellaneous ways to help. It’s going to be a brain dump, so please bear with me. In situations like this, all are helpful, but I have heard after storms like Hurricane Harvey, that oftentimes, money is the best way to help those in need so they can pay to get their homes back together.
- Give blood. This is at the top of my list. There is a massive blood shortage in the state of Texas right now. It’s critical to help patients in need. People were unable to donate last week, which led to a shortage. Here are several ways you can donate blood:
- Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center
- MD Anderson Cancer Center, which goes directly to cancer patients
2. Donate to food pantries. It seems like the biggest need continues to be cases of water and non-perishable items such as granola bars, peanut butter, canned fruit and canned veggies. The Houston Food Bank has a large need right now. Feeding Texas is accepting monetary donations here. For my North Texas readers, you can find more information about the North Texas Food Bank here. (Please keep in mind this is not meant to be a comprehensive list, but as a starting point for you if you want to help).
3. Houston’s First Baptist, our church, has a disaster relief fund so they can mobilize and help when the time arises. You can give specifically to that fund here.
4. Volunteer in Houston with Kids’ Meals Inc., which provides meals to kids in need.
5. For the Homeless: Houston’s Coalition for the Homeless has a list here where you can find which types of items they are in need of the most.
6. Donate to the United Way, and they will distribute your financial support to people in need.
Resources for those who experienced flooding or damage
- The Restoration Team: offering free services to those who have experienced flooding due to pipe bursts. They are able to gut and clean up water, remove sheetrock, etc… You can request their services here.
- Prayer requests. Our church, Houston’s First Baptist, is taking prayer requests.
- Our church is also sending out teams to provide physical labor to assist with debris removal, etc… you can fill out the online form to get started here.
- Crowdsource Resource is focused on helping vulnerable populations in Houston. Anyone can request help here.
- If you’re a Houston resident in need of help, call United Way at 211.
I hope you find this list helpful. These are organizations that I have heard about personally – or organizations that we have personally donated or volunteered with. As I hear of more, I will continue to either add to this list, or make a second list.
My house update
In terms of my personal recovery, we have the water mitigation team coming out tomorrow to rip anything wet out my house. This includes drywall/sheetrock, flooring, you name it. If it’s wet, it’s coming out. I am mentally prepared (but are you ever really mentally prepared?) for the rooms that took on water damage to be in a pretty bad state. It’s kind of a necessary evil.
Once the wet stuff comes out, they are putting fans in my house to dry everything out. What a time to be working from home. But, if there’s anything that 2020 taught us, it was adaptability. And, on Thursday, we have the plumbing crew back out to repipe. I’m doing my best to work from home while all of this is going on. If it gets too noisy, I can work out in our garage, which is fully insulated and has an a/c and heating unit. And, if everything is just too distracting, I might need to take a couple of days to fully regroup and get the house renovation organized.
